SONNETS  WRITTEN  AT 
OXFORD 


NINE  SONNETS  WRITTEN  AT 
OXFORD 


5NINKS 
SONETS 


OXFORD 

CHRISTMAS 


MDCCCXCY 


NINE  SONNETS  WRITTEN  AT 
OXFORD^  I:  THETQW-I>ATH 

U  RRO  W  to  f  urifb  w",  oar 
to  oar  succfedds  £9%  '- 
length  awa^'mbre  brigHt 
more  exquisite  &  The 
sister  shells  that  hither, 
thither  flitg*  Strew  the 
long  stream  like  dropping  maple- 
seeds  £§*  A  comrade  on  the  marge  now 
lags,  now  leads  gf*  Who  with  short 
calls  his  pace  doth  intermit  jj^  An 
angry  Pan,  afoot;  but  if  he  sitj^  Au- 
spicious Pan  among  the  river  reeds  £9* 
EST  of  the  glowing  hay- 
ricks,(tawny-blackjifc  Where 
waters  by  their  warm  escarp- 


ments run,)gf*  Two  lovers,  slowly 
crossed  from  Kennington^  Print  in 
the  early  dew  a  married  track  ^  And 
drain  the  aroma'd  eve,  and  spend  the 
Ere,  in  laborious  health,  the 
crews  come  backg» 


II:  THE  OLD  DIAL  OF  CORPUS 
JARDEN  of  hours  and 
jages,  here  I  dwell 
]Who  saw  young  Keble 
Ipass,  with  sighing  shook 
Fpr good  unborn;  and, 
ytbwards  a  willow  nook, 

Pole,  princely  in  the  senate  and  the  cell; 

And  doubting  the  near  boom  of  Osney 

bell, 

Turning  on  me  that  sweetly  subtile  look, 

Erasmus,  in  his  breast  an  Attic  book : 

Peacemakers  all,  their  dreams  to  ashes 

fell. 

AUGHT  steadfast  may  I  image  nor 

ittain 

Save  steadfast  labour;  futile  must 

I  grope 

After  my  god,  like  him  inconstant  bright. 

But  sun  and  shade  shall  unto  you  remain 

Alternately  a  vision  and  a  hope, 

Men,  spirits !  of  Emmanuel  your  Light. 


Ill:  AD  ANTIQUARIUM  QUID  AM 
Y  gentle  Aubrey*  ty#io  in 
everything,          •,"••••'• 
Hadst  of  tfyy  dty'slybuth  so 
lovely  lust, 

Yet  never  lineal  to  her 
towers  august 
Thy  spirit  could  fix,  or  perfectly  upbring, 
Sleep,  sleep.     I  ope,  not  unremembering, 
Thy  comely  manuscript,  and,  interthrust, 
Find  delicate  hueless  leaves  more  sad  than 
dust, 

Three  centuries  unkissed  of  any  spring. 
ILLING  a  homesick  page  beneath  a 
ime, 

y  mood  beheld,  as  mine  thy 
debtor's  now, 

The  endless  terraces  of  ended  Time, 
Vague  in  green  twilight.  Goodly  was  re- 
lease 

Into  that  past  where  these  poor  leaves  and 
thou 
Do  freshen  in  the  air  of  eldest  peace* 


IV:  ON  THE  PRE-REFORMATION 
CHURCHES  ABOUT  OXFORD 
IMPERIAL  Iffley, Cumnor 

bowered°in  green, 

AneTTfemplar  Sandford  in  the 

boatman's  call, 

And  sweet-belled  Appleton,  and 


Marcham  wall 


That  doth  upon  adoring  ivies  lean ; 

Meek  Binsey ;  Dorchester  where  streams 

convene 

Bidding  on  graves  her  solemn  shadow  fall ; 

Clear  Cassington  that  soars  perpetual ; 

Holton  and  Hampton,  and  ye  towers 

between: 

j|F  one  of  all  in  your  sad  courts  that 
:ome, 

jBelo v6d  and  disparted !  be  your  own, 
Kin  to  the  souls  ye  had,  while  time  en- 
dures, 

Known  to  each  disinherited  dumb  stone 
Home  in  the  quarries  of  old  Christendom, — 
Ah,  mark  him :  he  will  lay  his  cheek  to 
yours. 


V:  ON  THE  SAME  (CONTINUED) 
"^      ~~jS  this  the  end?  Is  this  the  pil- 
grim's day 

For  dread,  for  dereliction,  and  for 
tears? 

Rather,  from  grass  and  air  and 
many  spheres, 


In  prophecy  his  spirit  sinks  away ; 
And  under  English  eaves,  more  still  than 
they, 

Far-off,  incoming,  wonderful,  he  hears 
The  long-arrested,  the  believing  years 
Carry  the  sea-wall !  Shall  he,  sighing,  say : 
REWELL  to  Faith,  for  she  is 

dead  at  best 

Who  had  such  beauty?  "  or,  with 
kisses  lain 

For  witness  on  her  darkened  doors,  go  by 
With  a  new  psalm :  "  O  banished  light  so 
nigh! 

Of  them  was  I,  who  bore  thee  and  who 
blest; 

Even  here  remember  me  when  thou  shalt 
reign." 


VI:  A  DECEMBER  WALK. 

HITHERSOEVER  cold 
and  fair  ye  flow, 
Calm  tides  of  moonlit  mid- 
night, bear  my  mind ! 
Past  pillared  gates  with 
leafy  frost  entwined, 
And  Merton  in  his  stern  tiara's  glow, 
And  groves  in  bridal  gossamers  below 
Saint  Mary's  armoured  spire ;  and  whence 
aligned 

In  altered  eminence  for  dawn  to  find, 
Sleep  the  droll  Caesars,  hooded  with  the 
snow. 

JHITE  sacraments  of  weather, 
jshine  on  me, 

__  (And  sift  my  footfall,  and  my  fancy 
sift, 

Lest  either  blemish  an  ensainted  ground 
Spread  so  with  childhood.  Here  this  hour, 
outbound, 

On  recollected  wing  all  angels  drift 
Across  new  spheres  of  immortality. 


VII:  ROOKS  IN  NEW  COLLEGE 

GARDEN 

HRO'  rosy  cloud  and  over 

thorny  towers, 

Their  wings  with  darkling 

autumn  distance  filled, 

From  Isis'  valley  border, 

hundred-hilled, 

The  rooks  are  crowding  home  as  evening 

lowers : 

Not  for  men  only,  and  their  musing  hours, 

By  battled  walls  did  gracious  Wykeham 

build 

These  dewy  spaces  early  sown  and  stilled, 

These  dearest  inland  melancholy  bowers. 
JLEST  birds !  A  book  held  open  on 
Btheknee 
j  Below,  is  all  they  know  of  Adam's 

blight: 

With  surer  art  the  while,  and  simpler  rite 

They  follow  Truth  in  some  monastic  tree, 

Where  breathe  against  their  docile  breasts 

by  night 

The  scholar's  star,  the  star  of  sanctity. 


VIII:  A  LAST  VIEW 

HERE  down  the  glen, 
across  the  shallow  ford, 
Stretches  the  open  aisle 
from  scene  to'Scene, 
By  halted  horses  silently 
we  lean, 

Gazing  enchanted  from  our  steeper  sward. 
How  yon  low  loving  skies  of  April  hoard 
An  hundred  pinnacles,  and  how  with  sheen 
Of  spike  and  ball  her  languid  clouds  be- 
tween, 

Grey  Oxford  grandly  rises  riverward ! 
~1  WEET,  on  those  dim  long-dedi- 
icated  walls, 

]  Silver  as  rain  the  frugal  sunshine 
falls; 

Slowly  sad  eyes  resign  them,  bound  afar. 
Dear  Beauty,  dear  Tradition,  fare  you 
well: 

And  powers  that  aye  aglow  in  you,  impel 
Our  quickening  spirits  from  the  slime  we 
are* 


IX:    RETRIEVAL. 

ITARS  in  the  bosom  of  thy 

triple  tide, 

[  June  air  and  ivy  on  thy  gra- 

cile  stone, 

O  glory  of  the  west,  as  thou 

iwert  sown 

Be  perfect :  O  miraculous,  abide ! 

And  still  for  greatness  floating  from  thy 

side, 

Eternal  alchemist,  upraise,  enthrone 

Some  presence  of  salvation,  later  blown 

From  that  same  seed  of  fire  which  never 

died. 

O  R  faith  shall  lack  her  solace,  to 
behold 

Staunch,  to  the  morrow's  hostile 
evil  verge, 

New  points  of  light  subdue  disclosing 
spaces; 

And  round  a  beacon-spirit,  stabile,  old, 
In  radiant  broad  tumultuary  surge 
For  ever,  the  young  voices,  the  young 
faces. 


These  nine  Sonnets  written  at  Oxford  by 
Louise  Imogen  Guiney  and  decorated 
by  Bertram  Grosvenor  Goodhue  are 
privately  issued  for  them  and  their 
friends  and  for  Herbert  Copeland  and 
F.  H.  Day  and  their  friends  at  Christmas 
MDCCCXCV  the  printing  having  been 
done  at  the  University  Press  in  Cam- 
bridge Massachusetts  &  £t*  £t*  £t*  £•*  £•* 


eT. 


706573 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


